(intransitive) To glide along without adding energy.
(intransitive, nautical) To sail along a coast.
Applied to human behavior, to make a minimal effort, to continue to do something in a routine way. This implies lack of initiative and effort.
(obsolete) To draw near to; to approach; to keep near, or by the side of.
(obsolete) To sail by or near; to follow the coastline of.
(obsolete) To conduct along a coast or river bank.
(US, dialect) To slidedownhill; to slide on a sled upon snow or ice.
Esimerkit
The rocky coast of Maine has few beaches.
Then Herod perceavynge that he was moocked off the wyse men, was excedynge wroth, and sent forth and slue all the chyldren that were in bethleem, and in all the costes thereof […].
P. Crescentius, in his lib. 1 de agric. cap. 5, is very copious in this subject, how a house should be wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air, wind, etc.
the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […].
When I ran out of gas, fortunately I managed to coast into a nearby gas station.
The ancients coasted only in their navigation.
Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.
Anon she hears them chant it lustily, / And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.
Nearchus, [...] not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore.